After the End
by Petalouda85
Summary: The alternate ending to my story Until the End.
1. Alternate Ending, Part 1

**So here is the alternate ending I promised. Well, part of it, anyway (it's only two parts). The most popular choice was "Hiccup crashing the wedding", winning with 36 votes. In second was the successful elopement with 28 votes; in third was Merida marries William with 6 votes and last was Hiccup flees to England with 4 votes.**

**I was a little sad to see that "Merida marries William" option got very few votes, seeing that it was my favorite, but can't complain. I might just write it anyway, seeing that I'm pretty attached to this fanfiction. **

**This starts at the same point as "The Question". If you don't remember: in the original, that's when Hiccup asks Merida to elope with him.**

**Part 1**

"Elope with me." Hiccup suddenly said. Merida's eyes shot open wide and she looked down at him, her expression a mix of shock and surprise.

"What?"

"Elope with me." He repeated. Merida opened her mouth but no sound came out. She was at a loss of words. Hiccup sat up, causing Merida to slide off of him. Taking the cloak to cover herself, she stared down at the floor. "Merida, I can't bear to see you suffer. Run away with me and we can live the rest of our lives in freedom, without fear or hiding."

Merida sighed and cast her eyes to the floor. She wanted to run with him, more than anything but-

"I can't." She replied, "If I run and William finds out, the things he'll do to my family, my people…" She tried to keep it in but she let out a sob. With a pang of guilt, Hiccup took Merida into his arms and let her sob freely into her chest. He should've known that she wouldn't leave because of William. That man had so much power over her that she could barely have a free thought. As Merida continued to cry, Hiccup's was on fast as he tried to think of a possible solution to their dilemma. After a rather quick search, Hiccup had found something that could potentially free Merida and DunBroch.

"There is another way." He announced triumphantly. Merida choked back a sob and looked at him.

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you." He said, cupping her cheek and brushing away the tears, "But you have to promise that you can't agree to marry William when you're at the altar. You can't say it." Merida had no idea what he was up to but she nodded nonetheless.

"I promise."

* * *

For one week, Merida knew nothing of Hiccup's whereabouts, let alone what he was doing. Upon asking her mother, she found out that he had left a letter in the smithy stating that he resigned from his position and had returned to his village in the countryside. Merida knew it was just a hoax but part of her wondered if it was true.

As each day passed, Merida became more and more anxious. As the minutes ticked by, her fear of marrying William became stronger. She knew Hiccup would never condemn her to spent an eternity with such a man so she kept her hope that he would come back.

But her hope was at its lowest when the wedding day finally arrived. At that point, Merida was almost completely convinced that Hiccup wouldn't come back for her. With sadness in her heart, she let Rapunzel put her in her wedding dress, let her braid her hair, place the crown on her head and attach the veil.

The ceremony went by too fast for Merida. All too soon the priest asked her the unwanted question: if she would take William to be her husband and uphold all the vows the priest had read. She looked at the floor, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, Hiccup." She whispered to herself, "I…" She hesitated, "I w-" She didn't finish her sentence as the church doors flew open and a roar filled the building. All looked, some screaming, at the sight of a midnight black dragon filling the doorway and the man who sat on top him, his face hidden behind his leather helmet. As soon as she saw them, Merida began to cry tears of joy. William, however, was anything but joyful.

He drew his sword and stared at the stranger.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" He demanded. The dragon bared it's teeth to the lord while the man petted its head in an attempt to calm him down. The man didn't say anything.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" William hollered. After another moment, the man reached up for the helmet and pulled it off. There were many gasps as the man shook his head to free his hair from the tangles caused by the helmet. "Hendry Gallach?" William asked dumbfounded. Hiccup smirked and slid off of Toothless.

"Surprised to see me?" He mused.

"Yes, actually, considering you said that you returned to your village." Hiccup chuckled, swinging his arms back and forth while looking around the church.

"Well, I couldn't exactly miss a grand event like this." William scoffed.

"What are you really doing here, Gallach?" He demanded. Hiccup raised an eyebrow before turning to the crowd.

"I can't allow this wedding to continue."

"What?" The King hollered as the crowd began to murmur.

"And why not?" Queen Elinor demanded. The blacksmith turned his gaze to the royals and bowed politely to them.

"Your Majesties, there are many reasons. First and foremost," Hiccup hesitated, letting out a deep breath, "I'm in love with Merida." The murmurs became even louder as everyone was either intrigued or shocked by Hiccup's confession. "But William," He continued, instantly silencing the crowd, "Only cares for the crown she would inherit. Not only that. He would beat Merida if she didn't obey him." The murmurs escalated into shouts as more became revealed.

"How dare you accuse me of such things!" The Lord hollered. Hiccup rolled his eyes at William's pathetic attempt to look noble. He pointed an accusing finger towards the Lord.

"Don't deny it William! I saw the bruises myself!" He lowered his hand and looked to Merida, who was smiling at him, albeit with tears. William lowered his sword; he knew there was no way to escape from this. He racked his mind for something to make him seem less than the wrongdoer. It didn't take long to find the perfect move.

"You're no angel yourself, Hendry Gallach." He sneered, walking towards the blacksmith, not even flinching when the dragon growled. "You've lied too, lies that are the most grave." He stopped and looked at the King and Queen. "Your Majesties, this blacksmith has done nothing but lie to you. The man before you is not a Scot, as he claims to be, but a Viking!" The murmurs were even louder. "I confess that I've lied but lying is human nature and human sin. Regardless, I've broken no laws but Hendry Gallach is a traitor to DunBroch, tainting our soil with his barbaric feet." The two men stared each other down, neither willing to give in, "Do you deny that you're a Viking, filth?" Hiccup's fist clenched and he was about to pull forth his sword but he didn't. If he pulled the sword, he'd be no better than William.

The church was eerily silent as all stared at Hiccup, some expecting him to deny the accusation while the others expected a confession.

"No." William smiled gleefully while lords from various places started shouting every insult known to their tongue. Hiccup remained still in his spot, his eyes shooting between the guards that were approaching him at the command of William.

A high pitched whistle echoed, causing all to fall still. Hiccup pulled away his fingers from his mouth and waited.

5 seconds, 10 seconds.

A rumbling could be heard. Softly first but then louder and louder until…

_Crash!_

The circular glass window above the door smashed into smithereens and was quickly followed by another roar of a dragon. This dragon was blue with yellow spikes on its head and tail. It flew into the church and landed near the altar, causing the priest to scurry into the corner in fear. Merida took a careful step back. She noticed that this dragon had a rider. A woman who couldn't have been much older than her with blonde hair that was decorated with a leather head band. Most notably about her was her blue cloak. Grabbing a two-sided axe, the woman slid off the dragon and revealed herself to the crowd.

In the meantime, two more dragons had entered. One was huge with blazing red scales and a rider dressed in black while the other dragon was round and chubby with brown scales and a rider dressed in green. They landed in various places, keeping the crowd in check.

William stared at them all with awe but looked back to Hiccup when he cleared his throat.

"You seem to forget that there are more Vikings out there that don't like you, William." Hiccup jeered. He pointed at the woman, "That is the one you know as Aileen Fletcher but to me, her name is Astrid Hofferson." Hiccup repeated the same for the other two, naming their Scottish names first before revealing their Viking ones.

"Lastly, there's me." Hiccup said."You all know me as Hendry Gallach but my name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, son of Stoick the Vast, Chief of Berk and the Hooligan tribe." Immediately, the uproar came.

William, seeing the confession as a legitimate confession of treason, lifted the sword to deal the only measures fit for such a crime: death.

Time slowed. Hiccup reached for his sword, Toothless formed a blast in his mouth, Astrid ran to William with her axe lifted.

An unnatural clang was heard as two weapons clashed. The dragon swallowed the shot and the two Vikings stared in awe at the sight of the Princess, dressed in bridal regalia, was blocking William's blade with one she had taken from a guard. William was the most surprised of all.

The battle between them consisted of a few clashes of swords and a swoop of the flat of her blade against the back of William's leg that sent him to the floor. Merida pointed the sword at his neck, a tiny push enough to send it through the skin. Reluctantly, William put his sword on the ground and held his hands up in surrender.

"Leave." Merida seethed, "And take your puppets with you." William turned around and glared at her.

"You haven't seen the last of me. I swear it." He stepped away, signaling to Cináed and Artair to follow him, and the three men left without another word. Everyone stood still, the only sound coming from Merida, who was panting from exertion from the fight. She looked at Hiccup, who looked back with shock and awe. The sword clattered to the floor as Merida ran to him and embraced him tightly. Hiccup embraced her back with the same intensity, pulling her hair out of her restrictive braid.

"Thank you." She whispered, grabbing his collar and placing a firm kiss on his lips. Hiccup kissed her back gladly, figuring the trouble were over and that it was a fresh, new start for him, Merida and DunBroch. Unfortunately, the trouble was just beginning.

**Right that's part one for ya.**

**Review, favorite, follow.**


	2. Author's Note

Hey guys. This is not a pleasant topic for me to be talking about. This is something I've kept secret for almost 10 years but I can't keep it in anymore because it affects my writing and all my other online activity.

For years now, I've had a breathing problem. I've never told anyone partly because I was scared, I thought nobody would care, and it never bothered me too much. But recently it's plummeted to the point that I have issues swallowing and I can barely breath through my nose. I'm out of breath constantly and I can barely write because of it. I'm going to a doctor to have it checked out, so fingers crossed it isn't something severe and that it can be fixed. Once I've been to the doctor, I'll tell you if it's bad or not.

I needed to get this off of my chest.


	3. Health Update

I just came back from my family doctor (know the guy for many things; punctuality is not one of them). He couldn't find anything blocking my throat and my airways seem to be clear but I need to get a few x-rays and some tests done so I'm not out of the dark yet. I'll try to continue with writing but updates will be excessively slow.


	4. Alternate Ending, Part 2

**Look what I finally decided to write. You can say it; I'm a numnut. **

**Quite some time jumps because if I decided to write it all out, it would probably require one or two more parts and I want to write some other stuff too.**

**Also, to JelsaToTheMax, seeing that I couldn't contact you personally, my answers to your questions are in the AN below.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Alternate ending Part 2**

Hiccup knew that his stunt at the wedding would end with him and the others in jail but frankly, he was in too good of a mood to really care. The same however couldn't be said about Snotlout.

"I can't believe it! A jail!" He hollered, kicking the door, "We spent 11 years avoiding this place and now, poof, we're stuck here! I told you that we shouldn't have taken up on this stupid plan! We'd still be walking around freely, in the woods, instead of this dank, stinking rat hole!"

"Will you please shut up!?" Astrid hollered, "I can barely hear myself think!"

"Maybe I would if I knew what in Thor's name is going on!" the Viking hollered in reply, glaring at the man in leather who was staring out the window. "So, _Chief_," He mocked, "What's the plan?" Snotlout waited for an answer with crossed arms and his foot tapping in an annoying manner. Hiccup didn't even glance at the man as he answered,

"We wait."

"For what? For your Scottish bitch to sentence us to death?" Snotlout regretted saying that the instant the words left his mouth because of the glare Hiccup gave him. It didn't help that he heard Fishlegs quietly groan behind him.

"I have every faith in Merida." Hiccup deadpanned , leaving his spot by the window and grabbing Snotlout by his tunic, "So when I say she'll get us out, you better believe it." He let go and promptly returned to his spot, leaving a stunned Viking standing in the middle of the cell before he sat down beside Astrid.

An hour or so had passed when they heard commotion in the halls. Simultaneously, four heads perked up at the sounds of struggle and a woman yelling.

"Let me go, you bampots! Don't you dare touch me, you bas!" The door opened and someone was thrown in, the door shut quickly to prevent the person from escaping; certainly didn't mean she didn't try. She pulled at the handle and kicked the door more frantically than Snotlout.

"Shut up!" A guard hollered, banging the tip of his spear at the iron bars.

"Away and raffle yersel!" She hollered back but the guard said nothing in return. Finally calm, the woman turned to her cell mates, promptly making them freeze on the spot because the woman was Merida.

To say that Snotlout wanted to strangle Hiccup was an understatement but h remained where he was, knowing he would end up with a broken arm if he lay a finger on the man.

Hiccup though was in utter shock at the sight of the princess. With William away, he thought the king would finally be released from the lord's terrible influence, something Hiccup had grossly underestimated the power of.

"Now what?" Snotlout asked Hiccup with a smirk. For once, Hiccup didn't know the answer.

"Astrid!" He piped, "You've escaped from dungeons before. You got a plan?" The two women looked at each other and the blonde rolled her eyes.

"Unbelievable." She mumbled.

"Never have a man do a woman's job." The princess added as she reached down her corset and pulled forth a key.

"Where did you get that?" Fishlegs inquired in awe, stepping closer to verify that it was, in fact, the dungeon key.

"Guards are easily distracted by unruly prisoners." She giggled at their awed expressions and headed to the door, listening for a minute. The clatter of weapons and the thuds of bodies falling could be heard and, once it was silent, Merida placed the key into the hole. The lock opened with a loud thud and Merida peeked out before motioning to the Vikings to follow her. As they passed the knocked out guards, they watched the triplets taking each guards' weapon and locking them in a nearby broom closet. When they noticed the Vikings were staring at them, the boys gave them a look as if to say 'we're just as tough as you'

Merida led them deeper into the dungeons, avoiding guards and carefully going through the dark halls. They eventually reached a dark room with an impossibly high ceiling of earth. Going further into the room, Hiccup heard a familiar crooning.

"Toothless!" He called, running to his dragon and embracing his friend tightly. Toothless was completely trapped, chains on his feet and neck and a tight leather brace around his mouth that prevented him from breathing fire. Hiccup immediately pulled of the brace and, the instant he did, Toothless crooned in joy and licked his rider. "Toothless, stop!" Hiccup laughed but the dragon kept licking him.

"Hiccup, shh!" Astrid scolded while she helped her dragon out of its chains, "There may be guards nearby." The man immediately stopped and helped Merida remove the chains. The last chain was from Toothless' leg when they heard shouting from far away and an alarm holler.

"Go!" Merida begged.

"Come with us!" Hiccup begged, grabbing her arm. Merida looked back at him, tears brimming her eyes. She wanted to go but she couldn't; she needed to help her father recover from William's lies.

"Just come back for me." She leaned up and kissed him passionately. "Now go!" She repeated, running the way they had come, snatching a sword from a weapon rack and disappeared from sight.

"Hiccup! We have to go! Now!" Astrid screamed, waiting for the man while the other two men were already in the air. Hiccup stared at the spot where Merida had disappeared. When he heard shouts, he ran to Toothless and jumped on, the dragon instantly jumping into the air.

"Toothless, plasma blast!" He commanded, pointing to the earth above them, their ticket to freedom. Toothless opened his mouth and a bolt of plasma shot out, the earth rumbling when it struck. Huge chunks of dirt came crashing down but each dragon skillfully dodged the boulders, flying up to the sunlight and to freedom.

* * *

Civil war rampaged the land for several months with the MacInroys and their allies on one front and DunBroch with their allies on the other. For the first half, William had the upper hand with larger armies and better weapons but in the second half, DunBroch found an unlikely ally in the dragon riding Vikings. They agreed to help the king on the condition of freeing all Vikings once the conflict was done and that the king had no control over the dragons.

With the support of the dragons, William was defeated. His trial for treason was short and ended with his head on a spike. All his land passed to his sister and Cináed and Artair were executed soon after.

The king had kept his promise and all Vikings were free. Many returned to the archipelagoes, including Astrid and the rest of the gang, but Hiccup stayed behind with Toothless.

That was seven years ago. On the outside, DunBroch had changed very little. Besides a few new buildings, it was the exact same. On the inside, it was much different. Nearly all the MacInroy's had disappeared back to their home soil in the north after the defeat of their former lord. The only MacInroy left in DunBroch was Mavis, who had returned from England with Onceler after hearing that her father had left. The couple was now in charge of The Red Tartan and were the proud parents of two boys, Jonathan and Theodore, who everyone referred to as "Ted". 8 year old Jonathan was helping his father load barrels of drink into a cart for a celebration that evening while 5 year old Ted was feeding the old Melvin a carrot, which the donkey happily munched on. After the last barrel was on the cart, Onceler came around, petting the donkey on his back.

"How are you doing?" He asked. The donkey brayed and nudged the man.

"Can I ride him tonight, daddy?" Ted asked, stroking Melvin's nose. The man chuckled and picked the boy up.

"Not tonight, okay? He also has to pull the cart and it might be too much for him if he has to carry you too." The little boy looked disappointed but he nodded.

"Maybe if the Prince comes, he'll let you ride on his dragon." Jonathan said in hope of cheering the little boy up. It seemed to work as the little boy's head perked up.

"Really?" He squeaked. His brother nodded.

"But only if you ask nicely." He tried to sound stern but the tone only made Onceler laugh.

"It'll be a fun night but first," Onceler said, putting his son don and looking at both the boys, "You guys need to clean yourself." He looked in particular at Jonathan, whose face was covered in dirt from a wrestling match with another boy about n hour earlier.

"Yes, Father." The boys said in sync and they dashed into the house, nearly knocking over their mother while she tried to go through the door. The boys quickly apologized and continued to run to their room to get cleaned up.

Mavis shook her head lightly at them while Onceler chuckled. She walked over to her husband and embraced him tightly while he embraced her back with one arm and kissed her forehead. They said nothing, watching the sun slowly sink towards the horizon with bright smiles on their faces. Their serene moment was broken when their sons came running back and started talk excitedly as they wanted to go to the party.

When the sun was nearly below the horizon, the little family made their way towards the second wall, heading for the house of Jack and Rapunzel.

As it had been years ago, there was a huge bonfire with places to sit and Jack was busy playing his violin. The only difference compared to seven years ago was that there were many more people. As they approached the revelry, Jonathan and Ted ran ahead to join the children, leaving their mother to deliver the drink to Rapunzel.

Rapunzel hadn't changed one bit. Well, not entirely. As Mavis approached, she could see the three year old girl the woman was carrying in her arms, the girl smiling but trying to worm her way out of her mother's arms.

"Rapunzel!" Mavis called. The woman looked over and smiled, giving her sister in law a kiss on her cheek.

"I'm so happy you could make it!" She piped, looking away when the three-year-old tugged on her hair, "What is it, Anna?" The woman whispered to the child. Anna pointed to the group of children running around the grass or, rather, the brunette five-year-old running among them.

"Elsa."

"You want to go to Elsa?" When the child nodded, Rapunzel smiled. "Elsa!" She called to the group of children. Said child ran looked up and ran to her mother when she noticed her waving for her to come. Once the child was there. Rapunzel put Anna down but held her hands, "Your sister wants to play with you." She told Elsa, "Be careful, alright?" Elsa nodded and took her sister's hand, slowly heading towards the field with the other children. However, it didn't take long for Anna to run ahead of her sister, pulling as hard as she could on Elsa's arm so they could reach the field faster.

Mavis watched the two of them with a bright smile.

"You have beautiful girls, Rapunzel." The woman was staring at her children lovingly and didn't look away as she replied to Mavis' statement.

"Your boys are beautiful too." Rapunzel added, looking towards Ted and Johnathan as they played around with Anna. Mavis chuckled.

"They're troublemakers but I love them so much." They stood silently for a moment, watching their children play together and then with Jack. "Is Merida coming?" Mavis asked eventually. Rapunzel opened her mouth to answer when they heard a familiar screech and the swoop of large wings above. Rapunzel smiled while everyone else looked on in awe as the majestic Night Fury landed nearby.

Toothless crooned happily when he saw Rapunzel and looked over his shoulder as his rider slid off and helped Merida off of his back.

The Princess frowned at Hiccup as he helped her off of the dragon. Yes, she may be pregnant but that was no reason to treat her as if she were made of glass. She opened her mouth to voice the annoyance but Hiccup already knew what she wanted to say.

"I know, Mer." He said with a smirk, which caused Merida to roll her eyes. The royal couple walked towards the adults while all the children shouted excitedly and began swarming around the dragon. The Nigh Fury loved the attention, allowing so of the children to climb onto his back while he playfully poked at the others with his nose. Hiccup watched him briefly as he walked with his wife but turned away as they greeted Rapunzel and Mavis.

"How are you doing?" Mavis asked once Hiccup had left them to speak to the other men. Merida smiled.

"I've been fine. Morning sickness is a nightmare as is Hiccup treating me as if I'm a sheet of stained glass."

"He's just worried about you, Merida." Rapunzel reasoned. "And I don't think he could be as bad as Jack was when I was pregnant with Elsa."

"How bad was that?" Mavis asked. Rapunzel sighed at first but that quickly melted into a smile.

"He wanted to carry me everywhere."

"Everywhere?" Merida asked in awe.

"Everywhere."

"I sure am glad Hiccup isn't _that _protective." Merida replied, a slightly unsettling feeling in her stomach when Mavis and Rapunzel giggled.

"Oh, he will get that protective." Mavis warned.

"Well then," The red head said determinedly, "I'll just have to make sure that he doesn't become so overprotective." Mavis and Rapunzel looked at each other; whatever Merida had in mind, it probably wouldn't be good for Hiccup.

"Yes." Rapunzel chuckled nervously. The trio fell silent for a moment but Rapunzel soon became excited and suggested they all enjoy the party.

Enjoy it they did. As they had all those years ago, they danced and sang and celebrated to their heart's content. Merida danced with glee, ignoring Hiccup's constant worrying. Eventually, she got her husband to relax and he too danced happily. The night sped by and they headed back to the castle well into the early hours of the day. Merida rested her head on his shoulder as they walked, Hiccup holding her and leaning his head against hers.

Hiccup couldn't believe how much the Gods had smiled on him. He had lived unloved on an island for 14 years, survived a journey the equivalent of Hel, hid for 11 years among his enemies, and had fought in a war where he was a foe from both sides but still, he was alive and happy and content, married to a woman whom he loved with all of his soul and who had survived a journey as strenuous and difficult as his own. Looking back on it all, he would gladly go through it again to end at this point

He looked down at Merida, who was looking back up at him. The couple exchanged a smile and a kiss before continuing on their path to the castle, both excited for the many adventures ahead of them and for living the rest of their lives together the way they wanted to: in peace, in love, at home, and with family.

**There. It's finished. I don't know if I had said this before but at one point I was going to do requests for this story. Unfortunately, I'm not going to do that anymore because I know I will never finish any of them.**

**Thank you so much for reading this and _Until the End _and I hope I'll see you guys with my next stories. Don't forget to leave a review. :D**

**Answer**

**JelsaToTheMax: Yes, I totally ship Jackunzel. I never considered Jack and Elsa to be suitable partners even before Frozen was released. While I completely understand why the shippers ship it (even though I think some of the reasons are silly), I just can't ship them because I think they look way too much alike to be romantic partners. I always liked the idea of Jack and Elsa being family (father/daughter, mother/son, brother/sister) or just friends a lot more than boyfriend/girlfriend. Another reason is that I don't think Jelsa would send a very good message. For me it basically says: if we have one thing in common, we're perfect for each other. And while I don't ship them, I will tell you that I do have a story in planning where Jack and Elsa are a thing but very, very briefly and I can say with certainty that I don't have any intention of writing a story centered around just them. Plus, I'm a hardcore Helsa shipper and I can think of way more story ideas with them than Jelsa**

**On a final note, while Jelsa is close to being a NOTP for me, I'm not one of those assholes that goes around and tells people that they are crazy and need to stop shipping is because [ship name] is better. Shipping is something that's supposed to be fun and is a good creative outlet and hate can really ruin that fun (I've gotten hate for shipping Helsa, I know the feeling).**


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